Guerrilla Art Collective Fixes Toronto’s Downtown Advertising Pillars

The company Astral Media paid off the city for the right to install irritating “info pillars” displaying bland maps — and advertisements — throughout downtown. The group cARTographyTO took it upon themselves to correct matters by breaking into and altering the pillars to feature art-maps, created by Torontonians (with examples below), that are decidedly more thought provoking and visually pleasing. They explain:

cARTographyTO replaced ads in Astral Media “Info” Pillars with art-maps created by Toronto residents and local artists. This site-specific art, donated by over 30 concerned citizens (and supported by many times more), offers new possibilities for these spaces, and information about the surrounding neighbourhoods. This is a response to sidewalk billboards, and the erosion and privatization of public spaces.

Go the guerrilla artists!!! Having created and installed many guerrilla pieces as a teenager I think this is friggin awesome!

Jin The Ninja

it’s certainly an improvement to what was there before.

i also was quite guilty of guerrilla street art in my teens ^6^

now if we can only do something about the horrendous glass and steel condos they’re putting up EVERYWHERE…. literally i will walk outside and there will be NEW signboards for 3 permit applications- in a neighboorhood filled with glass and steel condos already

JaceD

Yeh I’ve never understood why people would choose to live in something that resembles a hospital, or a futuristic prison… You should get into glass etching, bring some life into these sterile monstrosities!

Jin The Ninja

lol. i think most people would be terrified or horrified at my design sensibility!

JaceD

I’d etch tiny penis’ everywhere. They’re quick and easy to draw, and they offend enough people to be hilarious….

Not that I’m immature or anything… O_o

Jin The Ninja

i was thinking penis’ or skulls, or maybe a mixture- with breasts thrown in. lol maturity is for when you’re 40.

JaceD

Vaginas also? Perhaps skulls with penis’ hanging out of their mouths, large breasts on either side of the skulls, and a vagina centred in their foreheads?

Jin The Ninja

i’m down for the range of genders.

Calypso_1

I’d like for you to make an appointment. Are you currently taking any meds?

JaceD

Depends on your idea of “meds”… However I will take what you’re prescribing, doctor.

Calypso_1

You underestimate the breadth of my pharmacopoeia. ; )

Jin The Ninja

‘I had discovered, early in my researches, that their doctrine was no mere chemical fantasy, but a philosophy they applied to the world, to the elements, and to man himself.’

i’m sure it’s extensive and interesting;)

Calypso_1

“It was a day that will remain blazingly clear in my memory, and one which unquestionably confirmed the entire direction of my life. I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may not choose to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyse its availability.”

JaceD

Ha. After close analysis of your comments, I’d have to
conclude that an underestimation would be very, very wrong.